TOP SHELF: Nelson Cruz: Melky Cabrera proved thereā??s money after suspensions but this is a place
for bargain shoppers. / Jim Cowsert, USA TODAY Sports

by Bob Nightengale, USA TODAY Sports

by Bob Nightengale, USA TODAY Sports

NEW YORK -- Baseball's pennant races, it turns out, won't be adversely affected after all.

Major League Baseball's greatest players - yes, even embattled and rehabbing Alex Rodriguez - can play uninterrupted all season.

A pall was cast over the game in January, when ugly allegations emerged that Biogenesis clinic director Tony Bosch distributed performance-enhancing drugs to dozens of ballplayers.

Oh, it's not going away.

It's just getting a deferral.

As baseball's biggest names gathered here for the 84th All-Star Game at Citi Field, a crucial detail was revealed: The game's next jewel event - the World Series - won't be compromised by players suspended for their connection to Biogenesis.

The Major League Baseball Players Association doesn't anticipate it will be notified of any suspensions until August, and if players appeal, the timing of the hearings, appeal process and the arbitrator's decision makes it virtually impossible for anything to happen before November.

But you can bet your Bud Selig bobble-head souvenir on this: Baseball's biggest doping scandal since BALCO will result in suspensions. Lots and lots of suspensions.

"It's good that baseball won't get a black eye during the season," Detroit Tigers All-Star right fielder Torii Hunter said. "It won't be such a distraction for all of the players of Major League Baseball and this game."

Yet what we learned Tuesday from union executive director Michael Weiner, who gave a dramatic media briefing as he battles an inoperable brain tumor, is that this serving of justice will be like nothing we have seen.

There are no rules and certainly no precedents.

There might not be a player suspended this season, let alone immediately after the All-Star break, Weiner confided, with appeals lasting until this offseason.

Weiner is as curious as anyone, divulging that MLB officials can impose the penalty of their choice, not sticking with the 50-game ban for the first offense since there have been no positive drug tests.

"In theory," says Weiner, now unable to move his right side and confined to a wheelchair, MLB could announce suspensions "for five games or 500 games."

So this breathless anxiety and fear that MLB will be brought to its knees with an imminent announcement that dozens of players will be immediately suspended, well, is nothing more than a false positive, so to speak.

So there's no urgency for the Texas Rangers to get another right fielder if Nelson Cruz appeals any suspension. The Tigers don't have to look for another shortstop for Jhonny Peralta. The Oakland Athletics can still have the ace of their staff, Bartolo Colon, leading them to the postseason.

Not that the All-Stars gathered here felt unanimous about it. Some want the suspensions doled out as quickly as possible, believing anyone who cheated should go down before they help their own teams win another game.

"I think it's great," Hunter says. "It won't affect the pennant races, and we can talk about this during the winter when the season is over.

"Hopefully there won't be any suspensions."

Hopefully the tooth fairy drops a million bucks under my pillow tonight, too. We can all fantasize.

"Whatever it takes to do the right thing, whenever that time is," Baltimore Orioles All-Star shortstop J.J. Hardy says, "I'm supportive of. I'm sure they will have to go through a long process to do it right.

"I'm just as interested as anyone else to see what happens."

Clearly, with no precedents in place, MLB will plan to establish its own bench marks for the next Biogenesis case. The penalties imposed now will be crucial for the future,

and the union certainly understands this case will have long-range implications.

"It's going to take some time," said Weiner, who anticipates MLB will disclose its findings in August. "We will have discussions about it. Then we will have cases go to hearings, maybe as soon as September."

There could be 10 days before a hearing is scheduled.

Then, of course, there will be the appeals and another 25 days.

And it will be done, one by one, all before the same arbitrator, Fredric Horowitz.

"Credibility issues will be big, no question," says David Prouty, union general counsel assistant. "If you're a guy who's accused of this, you want to be able to confront the witnesses against you, face to face. You don't want a mass hearing.

"If someone suggested, if there are 10 or 15 cases, there's only one arbitrator. If there are cases, we want them to be heard as quickly as possible and before the same arbitrator."

This will take time. There will be plenty of proffers and counterproposals flying between Weiner and his staff, along with Selig, executive vice president Rob Manfred and senior vice president Dan Halem, who heads MLB's department of investigations.

"They've got to prove all of those cases," Weiner said. "I like Dan Halem a lot, but they've got to prove all those cases. If that's the circumstance, we'll just have to schedule them and get them done as quickly as we reasonably can. And if we have the number that you suggest, it's going to take a while."

Yet don't be fooled for a minute that any appeal delays will deter Major League Baseball.

MLB investigators are going after the cheaters. They're convinced they have the evidence. They want them to go down.

They don't have the power to impose immediate suspensions, but believe it, they will come.

"If you have a testing program that's tough," Selig said, "then you have to be aggressive in pursuing what went on and why it went on. They are very much tied together.

"It's thorough, it's comprehensive and it's aggressive, and that I am proud of."

Gone are the days when everyone looked the other way when players showed up to camp with veins popping out of their heads, hitting the ball 140 feet farther and throwing it 10 mph faster. These days, everyone - yes, even the powerful union - wants the sport absolutely clean.

This Biogenesis cloud will linger, discipline will occur and then it will pass. Eventually, we'll gain perspective of whether this was simply an aberration in an era of heightened testing.